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Michael McDowell Left Loophole in Legislation Which ‘Removes Vital Protection From Kids’
Read more about: Crime, Fianna Fail, Government, Irish Politics, Labour Party, Law, Progressive Democrats, Youth 
The Labour Party today levelled the assertion at McDowell in the Dail that, following on from last years CC case and the rapid passing of legislation to close the gap on statutory rape left by the Supreme Court Decision, his legislation repealed vital protections for children. Labour spokesman on Justice Brendan Howlin has a press release and was on the News at One earler.
Up until last summer, soliciting or importuning children for sexual purposes was an offence under s. 250 of the Children Act 2001. The offence was committed if a child was approached with the intention of committing certain sexual offences – and it was committed without there being any need to prove that a sexual act was committed or attempted.
Of course it remains the law that a sexual act with a child is unlawful and that attempting such an act is also an offence. And it should be pointed out that “aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring” the commission of such an act by another person is also an offence. There are also provisions dealing with distribution of information for such a purpose.
But, in what can only be called an astonishing oversight, the law relating to soliciting and importuning children for sexual purposes was effectively abolished by Minister McDowell’s Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act of last summer.
It was effectively abolished because the section of the Children Act that prohibited soliciting and importuning was framed by reference to specific sexual offences against children. But those specific sexual offences were repealed by the 2006 Act and replaced by new offences. The end result is that section 250 of the Children Act 2001 now has no effect or meaning.
He made the point, quite rightly from what I can remember, that some opposition parties sought legislation which would only plug the gap, and squarely blamed McDowell and the cabinet for pushing through broader legislation which was insufficiently checked.
(I checked the Dail debate from that Bill last year and he’s right Labour did suggest that temporary measure – scroll down to [30] here)
Is this is the case then in a normal democracy the press would be calling for someone’s head and it wouldn’t be that of the lad who photocopied the legislation either…
I think the opposition, and especially Labour, are just as much to blame for this as McDowell. When the C case emerged last year they jumped up and down and screamed for emergency legislation and that the government were wrong to delay by even one day. Well now it turns out the government should have waited a few more days and presented a bill that was properly thought out. And guess what Labour are now jumping up and down and screaming that the whole thing happened too quickly and this is the end result. Well this sort of opposition in all circumstances may seem like a good idea in the halls of Dail Eireann but the public recognise it as playing politics with the safety of our children. Had the opposition been more restrained and worked with the government to deliver a well thought bill this would not have happened. Shame on Labour. And shame on McDowell for allowing himself be influenced by them.
Ya pretty daming all right. But McDowell will retreat to the fact that he kept complaining that he had not time.
Jaysus it must be great to be a paedophile in Ireland. Sure the judicial and legislative elites are only bending over backwards to “forget” to act on information passed on by other police forces, or allowing warrants to expire, or leaving loopholes for soliciting children. They’re a very organised lot too. How long is it before we see the formation of the Paedophile Party? I’ve an idea for a party as well: the Chemical Castration Party.
mick, as Cian noted above and loads of people noted at the time McDowell went much further in the legislation he presented to the Dail than was necessary to deal with the issue of statutory rape. If he had time to do all those others things that no one had asked for then he had time to ensure that it wasn’t introducing new problems. I remember the Green’s distinctly asking for a Sunset clause so that the legislation would be visited when there was more time, but McDowell pushed on.
Well Dan clearly he didn’t have the time to go far enough because the opposition were sitting on the Lunchtime show on Newstalk demanding immediate action and basically intimating that every minute the government delayed another innocent child was falling victim to an evil predator and it was all the government’s fault. Look it’s a plague on both their houses but I’m getting very fed up with the childish whinging of Labour and especially Brendan Howlin. I know some of you are strongly anti-government after years of mismanagement and can see no wrong in the opposition. Personally I’m disillousioned with the lot of them and the selective memory of Howlin and Rabbitt is the part that got my anger today. Tomorrow it will probably be something from Fianna Failures.
Why can’t we have a government and opposition that work together on issues like child protection. They can disagree all they like on the economy, energy, etc and fight for our votes on that battle ground. But on an issue where there is unanimous agreement on the best outcome both sides (and especially moaning Howlin) spend far too much time on their respective radio stations (Newstalk for the opposition and RTE for the government) trying to score political points off each other.
the opposition was demanding action on the issues raised by the C case not the other issues regarding the age of consent and the various acts that boys and girls can get up to. If he had not dragged in those other issues then he might have had time to deal with the central issue.
It’s a pity life isn’t that easy. In opposition happy happy land you change one thing and that’s it. In real legal life government changes one thing and spends the rest of the day closing loopholes. Unfortunatly Labour were shouting bloody murder from their Newstalk ivory tower and forced McDowell into the dail before his advisors had closed all the loopholes.
That’s it then. All our problems solved. Thanks L Ron.
Mick that was in response to the big lump of gibberish that Cian seems to have excised.
“I know some of you are strongly anti-government after years of mismanagement and can see no wrong in the opposition. Personally I’m disillousioned with the lot of them and the selective memory of Howlin and Rabbitt is the part that got my anger today. Tomorrow it will probably be something from Fianna Failures.”
I’m strongly anti-government but I’m never blind to the faults of the opposition. It’s always about voting for the least worst of them, not the best of them, when it comes to politicians.
I suppose that I’m anti-government too but I’m mostly against the political culture that has pertained for decades whereby politicians are elected and then left to their own devices where they muddle along, get a nice salary and a nice pension and if there’s no productivity in between, it doesn’t matter. Politicians, it seems, don’t have to answer for failure/ineptitude like you would have to in an ordinary job. But their obligation is far more serious than an ordinary job in that they are responsible for decisions which affect the lives of people whose only voice is, in many cases, a politician whose only aim is to get as much as he/she can before the next election.
We, as an electorate, need to exercise better judgement when voting and to ‘keep tabs’ on our representative after their election.
We now have the means to do this. In the future I believe that the internet will be employed to keep the holly to the politicians arse by exposing his/her capabilities or lack of them.
A typical example of political ineptitude is the present farce where the laws to protect children and to thwart peadophiles are only being sorted now.
Our present government and opposition, collectively, don’t seem to be able to anticipate the need to urinate and the coming election probably won’t even cause a rearangement of the ‘pisspot on the dresser’.
I suppose that I’m anti-government too but I’m mostly against the political culture that has pertained for decades whereby politicians are elected and then left to their own devices where they muddle along, get a nice salary and a nice pension and if there’s no productivity in between, it doesn’t matter. Politicians, it seems, don’t have to answer for failure/ineptitude like you would have to in an ordinary job. But their obligation is far more serious than an ordinary job in that they are responsible for decisions which affect the lives of people whose only voice is, in many cases, a politician whose only aim is to get as much as he/she can before the next election.
We, as an electorate, need to exercise better judgement when voting and to ‘keep tabs’ on our representative after their election.
We now have the means to do this. In the future I believe that the internet will be employed to keep the holly to the politicians arse by exposing his/her capabilities or lack of them.
A typical example of political ineptitude is the present farce where the laws to protect children and to thwart peadophiles are only being sorted now.
Our present government and opposition, collectively, don’t seem to be able to anticipate the need to urinate and the coming election probably won’t even cause a rearangement of the ‘pisspots on the dresser’.